This invention relates to the construction of a combing cylinder assembly attached to a comber.
As shown by FIG. 1, the conventional combing cylinder comprises a needle plates laminated member 5 which is formed by laminating a plurality of needle plates 3, each having a needle head 1 and a dovetail groove 2 at the back of its fixing or attachment part, and by inserting a sash-like metal sheet 4 in the dovetail grooves, thus fastening the plates together, and a combing cylinder proper 6 having grooves 7 made therein in the radial direction of the cylinder (perpendicularly to the tangential plane), into each of which grooves a respective needle plates laminated member 5 is inserted.
The extent of interlocking of the groove 7 made in the combing cylinder proper 6 and the needle plates laminated member 5 is very important. In the conventional combing cylinder, when fiber is subjected to combing action by needle heads 1, the component force F.sub.2 in the radial direction of cylinder works in such a direction that it tends to pull out the needle plates laminated member because the needle head is inclined toward the rotational direction of the cylinder. Thus, with long use of the combing cylinder, the gap between the needle plates laminated member 5 and the groove 7 becomes larger. Moreover, as the needle plates laminated member 5 is formed by thrusting the sash-like metal sheet 4 through dovetail grooves 2 of needle plates 3 and fastening thereto, in the case where some of the needle plates become damaged, it is necessary for taking out only the damaged needle plates to pull the needle plates laminated member 5 out of the groove 7 of the combing cylinder and cut off the sash-like metal sheet 4 by means of a chisel, pincers or the like. However, it is very difficult to cut off the sash-like metal sheet 4 without damaging good needle plates, and therefore it is inevitable that some of the good needle plates are removed to cut off the sash-like metal sheet.
In the conventional combing cylinder of a comber, needle plates laminated members are arranged at regular intervals in the rotational direction of the cylinder and needle heads are arranged at fixed intervals in the axial direction of the cylinder. With such arrangements, it is impossible to vary the needle head density by degree, and therefore the combing action required of the combing cylinder cannot be performed fully. The present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional combing cylinder of comber.